Seafood myths

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SEAFOOD MYTHS

Many myths and misconceptions have sprung up concerning seafood. As is the way with myths, they are handed from generation to generation, reinforced with each telling, until they become an almost inherent part of the culture in which they grew. Nor are these myths fare for the unlearned; educated people are likely to believe them as well.

Here are a few of the myths and misconceptions concerning seafood that have come down through the years: * Oysters and other shellfish should be eaten only in months with an "r" in them. So far as the United States is concerned, this is not true. Under commercial raising and harvesting conditions, oysters and other shellfish are safe and good to eat any month of the year.

Certain European oysters, which brood their young in months without an "r" are less palatable at that time of year, but this rule doesn't apply to U. S. oysters, which don't brood their young. As a contradiction to the myth about "r" months, shellfish containing a paralytic shellfish poison are occasionally found along the Pacific Coast in "r" months. When this occurs, people are warned against gathering and eating these particular shellfish. The California Department of Health places a quarantine on the harvesting of mussels between May 1 and October 31; and along the Oregon Coast, people are warned by the news media against gathering and eating the mussels that cling to rocks that rim the beaches. The cardinal rule is that any commercially available shellfish is non-toxic and safe to eat.

* Oysters are an aphrodisiac. The idea of eating oysters for their aphrodisiac qualities, which has been around for a long time, is basically untrue. Oysters do contain considerable amounts of nature's building block, cholesterol, as well as being extremely rich in protein -- although it is doubtful that this was common knowledge when the aphrodisiac myth was perpetrated.

* Shellfish that die before being cooked should not then be cooked and eaten. People have been warned not to eat clams, mussels, crabs, lobsters and other shellfish unless they are alive when cooked. From the standpoint of flavor, this is a good suggestion, but shellfish don't become toxic when they die. When shellfish die, their digestive glands break down, releasing digestive enzymes that begin digesting the flesh of the animal. Cooking the shellfish alive prevents this process from beginning. The reason you should only clean and cook live or frozen shellfish is that those that die before being cooked or frozen will have a decomposed flavor and odor.

* Seafood it a brainfood. The myth of fish as a brain food goes back to a 19th Century Harvard University scientist who discovered that phosphorus is abundant in the human brain, and from this fact, wrongly concluded that a diet of fish should increase the human IQ.

* Eating seafood with fresh milk will make you sick. This is totally untrue, both from observation and the application of logic; the combination of two wholesome foods cannot possibly make one sick.

* Mahi-Mahi is actually porpoise meat. This myth probably originated because the Mahi-Mahi is also called dolphin fish or dolphin.

Mahi-Mahi is really a fish, caught in tropical waters and marketed throughout the world. The dolphin, as a mammal, is protected by the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act, and is not harvested or used for food in the United States.

* Frozen seafood is inferior to fresh seafood. This is more a simple fallacy than a myth and probably originated around the time when the marketing of seafood went through the transitional stage from primarily refrigeration and icing methods, to freezing methods. The truth is that fresh seafood is processed quickly after being harvested, with surpluses beyond the immediate marketing demands being frozen by the "glaze" method, which literally coats the product with a layer of ice. This is an improvement over the old dry-freezing method, which itself was a viable way of handling a highly perishable product. Fresh-frozen seafood is of exactly the same quality and flavor as when it was frozen.

: About the Author

Adam Starchild has combined business travel with discovering the delights of native dishes from Hawaii and Hong Kong to Russia and the Caribbean. He is the author of The Seafood Heritage Cookbook (Cornell Maritime Press), co-author of another seafood cookbook, and the author of a number of food and cooking articles.

Submitted By BARRY WEINSTEIN On 08-30-95

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